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Cliff Buchan
News Editor
A half dozen years ago when a commuter bus route from Forest Lake to the Twin Cities was given a trial run, it failed. Lack of ridership was the reason. Monday’s start of a new bus service from Forest Lake to Minneapolis is not seeing that trend, at least not in the early days of the service.
A total of 262 commuters — at least one coming from as far north as Hinckley — hopped on one of the four staggered routes on Metro Transit Route 288, a one-year demonstration route. The route is designed to provide relief at the crowded 95th Avenue Park & Ride in Blaine and is part of a larger transit response to mitigate the impacts of the I-35W bridge collapse.
The service is offered by the Metropolitan Council, using a contract provider, with planning assistance from Metro Transit and the Rush Line Corridor Task Force, a joint powers board of counties and cities along a corridor from St. Paul through Hinckley.
Forest Lake resident Barbara Boe was among those who took one of the four buses to Minneapolis on Monday.
For the past six years, she has made the daily drive to the 95th Avenue facility off I-35W in Blaine to catch the bus for her ride to work at Wells Fargo in downtown Minneapolis.
But no more, Boe says.
Rather than making the 34-mile daily round-trip trip drive to Blaine, she has decided to make the short drive to the new Washington Country Transit Center facility at the Washington County Headwaters Service Center, 19955 Forest Road N.
“I don’t think they are going to have a problem with ridership,” Boe offered.
With the price of gasoline north of $3 a gallon, the cost of parking and the headaches of Twin City traffic factored, Boe says she is happy to have the commuter service.
The cost is $5.50 for a round-trip fare.
The transit center parking lot was nearly full on Monday, prompting Washington County Commissioner Dennis Hegberg, Forest Lake, to wonder about parking problems. If the Minneapolis route attracts new riders and the Rush Line bus service can be rolled out this spring for St. Paul commuters, it will be a nice problem to solve, he said.
A good start
Officials of Lorenz Bus Service, the contractor for Route 288, were pleased by the opening-day turnout.
Lorenz official Cathy Cleveland said the company was pleased by the response on the first day. “We thought there would be a good response,” she said.
Driver Mike Anderson, a 15-year veteran with Lorenz, said commuters are tired of paying for gas and parking and sitting in traffic. “They hate driving,” he said.
On Tuesday, the morning ridership count was 155.
Anderson was assigned to the test route a number of years ago and believes the time was not right for the service. That appears to have changed now, he said, based on the results he is seeing.
Anderson handled one of the Minneapolis to Forest Lake afternoon routes on Monday. He pulled in to the transit center here at 4:27 p.m., five minutes ahead of schedule.
The first bus of the morning leaves at 5 a.m. with 30 minutes of departure time between each of the remaining buses.
The first afternoon bus to Forest Lake begins around 3:30 p.m. in downtown Minneapolis. Some 10 MTC stops are offered in Minneapolis for the morning and afternoon routes, meaning many commuters can leave or catch a bus within easy walking distance of their job.
For route and schedule information call Metro Transit’s Transit Information Center at 612-373-3333.
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